RESTAURANT REVIEW : Yamakawa Offers an Oasis for Ethnic Food in Toluca Lake

Just a few years ago Toluca Lake and the neighboring parts of Burbank were utterly bereft of ethnic restaurants. The most exotic possibility, though hardly authentic, was Kosherama Chow’s Delicatessen and Cantonese Cuisine in Burbank, where you could (and still can, for that matter) eat chow mein with your pastrami sandwich. But things have started to change.

For instance, you can find yourself deciding which flavor of fried ice cream to choose at Yamakawa in Toluca Lake, a cheery place run by a mother-daughter team. From the outside it seems like a small place; the unassuming exterior has large windows through which you can watch the sushi chefs as they work. Walk inside, however, and the uncomplicated interior seems surprisingly large.

The two rooms peripheral to the main dining area and sushi bar are discreetly placed so as not to make the main room seem small. It took an embarrassingly long time for me to realize that there were no other rooms, just mirrors.

The restaurant’s food is freshly prepared and reasonably priced. The menu’s dinner in a box, a version of the traditional Japanese bento , or picnic box, is especially welcome. The black and red lacquered box’s compartments contain a salad with a creamy sesame dressing; a large portion of well-textured shrimp and vegetable tempuras; a gyoza, a dumpling filled with seasoned chopped pork; a sizable portion of chicken, beef or salmon teriyaki; crab meat, rice and chunks of fresh pineapple. This copious feast costs $8.95 at dinner and $6.80 at lunch; sushi or sashimi can be substituted for one of the meat choices.

If you choose one of the regular dinners--various fish, teriyakis and tempuras--that come with miso soup and rice, you may want to start the meal with sushi or an appetizer. Yakitori, chunks of chicken marinated in soy sauce and grilled with scallions, and soft shell crabs, quickly fried in tempura batter, are particularly lively here.

Dynamite--scallops, mushrooms and scallions covered with a mayonnaise-like sauce and broiled in a large shell--is a bit hearty for one person as an appetizer, but is just right for sharing. (The lobster entree, cut-up lobster meat similarly prepared and broiled in its own shell, doesn’t work). Deep-fried prawns, though excellent, are oddly priced--$6.80 gets you two prawns, while the entire bento dinner, which includes three tempura shrimp, costs just a little more.

Yamakawa’s fish entrees are served broiled, fried, teriyaki-style or shioyaki- style. The last is one of those deceptively simple methods by which Japanese chefs so frequently bring out the best in fish. It calls for lightly salting the fish, which should have its skin still on. The presence of the skin ensures that the fish’s natural oils are not lost.

The sushi menu at Yamakawa is ample. In addition to many familiar items, there is what may be an homage to Kosherama, or at least to some of its customers: Along with the cucumber roll and the California roll, there is a Philly roll. It’s a handsome, large-diameter composition made of chunks of salmon, cream cheese and julienned cucumber wrapped in seaweed and rolled in rice, encrusted with the tiny red roe of flying fish. It tasted quite good, but was almost as heavy as lox and cream cheese on a bagel. The crisped salmon skin salad, on the other hand, was light and refreshing and far more satisfying.

Now, back to the fried ice cream. Yamakawa offers five flavors: vanilla, plum wine, green tea, red bean and ginger. First of all, I’d ask them to hold the whipped cream, which turns the supposedly tempura-crisp crust to mush. Then I’d order only one as a test before splurging on a round for everyone. On second thought, I wouldn’t order it at all.

Yamakawa, 10118 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake. (818) 763-8355. Open Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Beer and wine. American Express, MasterCard, Visa accepted. Parking lot. Dinner for two, food only (excluding sushi), $18 to $36.